


The fire in people's eyes

by ToxicPineapple



Series: Femslash February 2020 [17]
Category: Dangan Ronpa - All Media Types, Dangan Ronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc
Genre: (That's the prompt), (and is pretty much a given), (not the kirisaba), (that's between junko and mukuro), Alternate Universe - Non-Despair (Dangan Ronpa), Character Study, F/F, Feelings, Femslash February, Fire, Introspection, It could be read that way, Kirigiri Kyoko Is Welcome To Step On Me Any Time She Likes, Potentially Canon Compliant, SO, Unhealthy Relationships, but that's sad, implied romantic feelings, talking about feelings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-17
Updated: 2020-02-17
Packaged: 2021-02-28 04:55:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,034
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22628212
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ToxicPineapple/pseuds/ToxicPineapple
Summary: Mukuro likes seeing the fire in people’s eyes when they get going. When their topic of interest is brought into the conversation. There’s nothing more fulfilling to her than seeing a normally mild person’s eyes spark with interest, their back straightening and their shoulders setting. Getting ready to talk.Her favourite person to watch, for this very reason, is Kyoko.Kyoko doesn’t… express her passion in those ways. She’s got this mask on her face at all times, keeping all traces of emotion from slipping through. She’s open about feeling things, but she states that she’d rather not allow her emotions to get in the way of her work, and so she pushes them carefully to the side. It’s easy to think of Kyoko as totally above it all, impervious to the things that make people, people.But she’s not.---Mukuro likes being a passive observer.
Relationships: Ikusaba Mukuro/Kirigiri Kyoko
Series: Femslash February 2020 [17]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1616182
Comments: 20
Kudos: 50





	The fire in people's eyes

**Author's Note:**

> written for femslash february day seventeen! the prompt is "fire"

Being a soldier, a lot of people assume that Mukuro is an action-oriented person. And she can be. When she’s on a mission, when she has a clear task ahead of her… then she’s all business. She can hyperfocus like crazy. When she’s concentrating, it’s as though all external factors cease to exist. Just her and her end goal. It’s something that’s admittedly come in handy a lot in the past, though she knows that it’s a massive inconvenience to the people who try to talk to her in those times.

Still, most times? Mukuro would consider herself more of a passive observer. Her favourite thing to do is take the sidelines. Not out of a place of shyness, or anything; it isn’t that she’s particularly social, but yeah, Mukuro can carry a conversation. She’d like to think she’s even funny, sometimes, though it’s only because she thinks so much that she forgets the things she says can come out as really dry from time to time. She can be awkward, but she doesn’t get anxious about talking to people. They’re people. She’s not afraid of them.

But Mukuro likes standing to the side. She likes bearing witness to the action, not playing a role in it. Or if she does play a role, not getting any credit afterwards. She carries her weight in group projects but she doesn’t mind it if her name isn’t plastered all over the assignment. That kind of thing. She just likes to watch. Part of it is a soldier thing. By watching people she gathers data on them, and thus makes them easier to compartmentalise. She likes to have a game plan for how she’d go about taking down each and every single one of her classmates in a fight. Just in case. For the most part, though, it’s just personal preference.

People are  _ interesting.  _ Other people to her represent, like, this well of information that she has no way of accessing through anyone but them. They have their own unique perspectives on things, and things that they’re incredibly passionate about, and things that they love. That’s just so neat. Mukuro likes seeing the fire in people’s eyes when they get going. When their topic of interest is brought into the conversation. There’s nothing more fulfilling to her than seeing a normally mild person’s eyes spark with interest, their back straightening and their shoulders setting. Getting ready to talk.

(Okay. Maybe it’s a bit of a weird pastime, but you’d be hard pressed to find someone who  _ doesn’t  _ people watch to some extent. People are interesting. Mukuro can’t help being interest _ ed. _ )

Her favourite person to watch, for this very reason, is Kyoko.

Kyoko doesn’t… express her passion in those ways. She’s got this mask on her face at all times, keeping all traces of emotion from slipping through. She’s open about feeling things, but she states that she’d rather not allow her emotions to get in the way of her work, and so she pushes them carefully to the side. It’s easy to think of Kyoko as totally above it all, impervious to the things that make people, people.

But she’s  _ not.  _ Mukuro has seen it. She can recognise the cracks in Kyoko’s mask because they so resemble the cracks in her own, on the occasion when her mask does begin to slip off her face. Things people say that hurt her feelings. Brief flickers of annoyance in her eyes when she’s interrupted. Smug smiles and proud eyes when someone she’s mentoring (Shuichi-- a first year-- or Makoto, usually) guesses something correctly. Follows her trail of breadcrumbs, so to speak. Kyoko is very expressive, actually, if one knows how to find the ways that she shows what she’s feeling. And Mukuro watches her so often that she does.

Beyond all of that, what Mukuro really likes to see is Kyoko’s anger. Because when she’s angry her eyes are lit ablaze. She stands up tall and straight and sets her jaw, her entire expression smoothing out. She protects her heart with impassivity. But her purple eyes, they show the burning rage that she feels. It’s a look Mukuro saw her give the assassin that snuck on campus once, going after Sonia Nevermind in the third year. But also, it was a look that Kyoko gave  _ Junko. _

One of the unwavering truths that has always defined Mukuro’s existence is that nobody puts their foot down, as far as Junko is concerned. In her lifetime, Mukuro can’t recall raising her voice at Junko even once. That’s the kind of relationship they have. Have always had. And she’s been content with it, because it’s never occurred to her to question that it might not be something she really wants. But then there was Kyoko.

And the thing with Kyoko is, she can say a lot in a little. All she had to do was lean forward, gaze so sharp it cleared the one-inch height difference between her and Junko (Junko being the taller one) and say, “One day, she’s going to realise what you are, and then you’ll be by yourself,” in the softest, softest voice Mukuro had ever heard, and turn on her heel. Junko had laughed it off, saying something about petty threats and detectives with small dick complexes, but Mukuro wasn’t listening. She was thinking about how she had never actually held a conversation with Kyoko before.

It’s just, it’s reassuring, Mukuro supposes, to see someone so strong as Kyoko be so genuinely emotional. She puts on a mask for her work but she feels, really and truly, and it shows that not only is she a fundamentally good person, but also? Her emotions don’t make her weak.

(Perhaps it is the only thing that gives Mukuro any faith at all that perhaps her sister’s words have less truth to them than she’s always thought.)

Also, it gives her a desire to… step out from the sidelines, into the action. Become a main character, or a character at  _ all.  _ Be more than a passive observer. If only so that she and Kyoko can be friends. (And maybe more than that, if… if Kyoko would let her, of course.)

**Author's Note:**

> oh hell yeah
> 
> klasdjfkld it's february 9th which means i'm... behind schedule but it's okay. the valentine's day piece was kinda a lot ya know.
> 
> uhhhhh what else. mmm. nothing. these ladies, y'know? gotta love 'em. kirisaba is a BIG BRAIN ship
> 
> this one goes out to you, nova, i hope you're happy you fucking makoto kinnie


End file.
